Turelus's page

Overall I found the Playtest rules a big improvement on PF1 and it got rid of a lot of my issues with PF1, I'll pre-order as soon as PDF and GenCon collections are confirmed. Anything I don't enjoy I can house rule any way (planning PF2 for my homebrew game).

I do think Paizo might benefit from getting some preview documentation out though so people like OP can view how things changed. Although we're still four months out so plenty of time for PF Friday etc. to show the game off.

The playtest was brutal and I hope they changed rules to make the game more forgiving over what that showed, however I stand by that I had more fun in the playtest as a GM than I have in a long time as a GM for PF1.

Any chance these can be pre-ordered for collection at GenCon?

I really wanted to get mine at GenCon as my big memory item for the trip, but don't want to miss out on a special edition.

The speed issue has bothered me as a dwarf as well.

I've been playing Doomsday Dawn as a Dwarven fighter, started during v1.3 and updated to v1.4 last session.

Version 1.3
To start with I chose to use a breastplate rather than fullplate just because 15ft movement on a fighter didn't sound fun. The module I've been playing has a lot of difficult terrain as well so some fights even with the unhindered movement I was getting only 10ft per action (sudden charge for 20ft)
I would never consider heavy armour on a dwarf after this experience (this could be expanded to most 25ft ancestries with heavy armour as well).

Version 1.4
Not a big change, I just chose the heritage which let me keep the movement from above, however it didn't seem like a choice nor a fun part of creation.

The reasons for it being a heritage was because people who didn't need to use it could avoid choosing it. However if you want to be a melee person in heavy armour you "HAVE" to choose that heritage option.

This to me doesn't add to a level of character design choice but rather forces dwarven armour users into a "mandatory" heritage selection.

I personally feel this should be a base ability of all dwarves as it was before, so there is more freedom of choice on which heritage to choose.

(quote marks on my hyperbolic terms)

I really love the sound of some of these ideas.

The idea that the group can stop for 10mins and perform some actions to get back into fighting condition (with everyone contributing) would be an interesting change.

Makes me think of Darkest Dungeon (video game) where when you camp for the night you can choose what skill everyone in your party uses during the rest period.

I'm one of those who really hates wand spam.
To me it feels super cheesy and mechanics based, not something immersive on the roleplay side.

The game's I've run as a GM have mostly fallen into the same pattern, the players beat an encounter then stand around for x rounds whilst people spam wands so they can enter the next fight with full HP.

This allows the cleric or other casters to then save more of their spell slots for buffs, adding to power levels in every fight etc.
Due to their near infinite source of cheap healing they won't question fights or consider alternative tactics, it's run in and attack everything because resources are not an issue.

I don't want to have the situation where players are forced to stop adventuring after every fight in order to recover fully, but at the same time I want to stimulate that old school fear and decisions of if the group should push on or should they charge right at that giant rather than employ ranged weapons as long as they can.

I like the new healing skill use because although it in theory grants them full healing, there is a time investment involved, you also (in theory) can't just sit in the centre of a room for 10mins during the assault on the BBEG's base.

I understand why CLW spam happens, and I allow it because it's only fair in the systems rules. However it doesn't mean I enjoy it being and if Paizo can find a way to remove it or tone it back without crippling adventure times I would be more than happy to embrace that.

3.) When did cantrips become so powerful and why is magic missile so powerful?? You use vebral, somatic and material and you get 3 missiles at 4th level??? Nonsense.

I'd imagine because playing Evocation in PF1 was boring.

I'm running a PF1 campaign right now with a player who wanted to play a wizard specialised in Evocation spells to see "if it's really that bad" we're now at mid levels (13th) and he feels useless in most combat scenarios.

Sure he can get a big damage spell off for 40-80 damage (maybe AoE) but when the Paladin and Slayer are doing 100-200 per round it makes his spells seem meaningless. He's already agreed he would have been more use being a CC or buff bases wizard again.

I think buffing Evocation spells to actually do damage is one of the things Paizo got very right with the Playtest. Wizards should be allowed to throw out a spell and not feel like they only tickled an enemy.

With my best ability of not trying to come off as rude or attacking them, how well versed was your GM with the rules?

Most of the "I don't want to look it up" rules I know myself with just one read through of the book, or at least the knowledge of where to find them fast should I need to confirm them.

The monsters feeling bland I can kind of understand, but I would hope they all have enough special abilities to make use of to make the combat more interesting.
The high level ones (not appearing in Doomsday Dawn) have some great stuff like the ancient dragons etc.

I support this request as well.

I read other threads about it before reaching the sections of the book where temperatures came up and kind of waved it off as a non-issue.

However on actually getting to those sections a while later I did find it very difficult to understand instantly.
If it could be possible to list temperatures in both formats I think everyone who uses it as the primary for their country would very much appreciate it.

If I remember correctly the page already has some information within brackets following the temperatures, so it might not read well if you used them. Maybe a simple xF/xC if that's not too ugly for print?

Rob Godfrey wrote:

The 'big 6' and the 'magic utility belt' are a large part of what makes PF mechanically fun, they aren't a 'problem' that needs fixing they are a core and interesting feature. That for me is the disconnect here, Paizo are introducing a system to 'fix' what makes high magic, high fantasy games fun.

You will find this position highly debatable.

Having magic items is fun. Having to have certain magic items so you don’t fall behind which means you’re cut off from using other fun magic items, not so much.

Pretty much every game I've run my players eventually end up disappointed they had to give up that interesting item they found for a +bonus item in that slot.

I *REALLY* like how the new attribute buff items work, you can only have one and you have to choose a +2 or instant 18.

Thanks for the Signature Skill changes (removal) this is exactly what my group wanted and everyone seems really happy with that system now.
Especially as we have a system now where anyone can disable device all the way to high level (with rogues being better due to feats).

Curious though with the rebalance of numbers of skills.
Wizard for example went from 2+INT skills to 1+4+INT skills.

Filled it out but for me it was done more on a GM view (as I've not been a player in a number of years)

I don't 100% like resonance but I am 100% behind some of what it wants to achieve.

I personally can't stand the situation where combat ends and the first thing the group does is start spamming cure light wounds wands and chugging potions.
I understand fully why players do this and that it's more viable than alternatives, but for me personally it's an immersion and roleplay killer.

Now, for resonance itself (not played yet, only read the books) I wasn't super against the idea of it for attuning items and use for item activations.

For scrolls and potions it felt very out of place. Especially scrolls because I've always seen them in my mind as magically infused as part of the scribing, or a formula which becomes magical on reading, not something which required someone to infuse with magic during the casting.

I want Paizo to kill off low level item spam, and I hope they can find a way to do it without the gamey feeling system of resonance.

This is my new favourite story from Paizo.

I kind of feel like we need a token dire rat in every adventure path going forward with second edition.

I have to agree with the people saying about too much cross referencing.

I've been reading the book page by page and it seems almost everything I read is telling me to flip all over the book to understand it.
I know this is a rulebook and not a novel, but at the same time I can't help but feel if someone new is reading this they're going to be flicking back and forth constantly.
I would say maybe make sure the reference has to be there, if you don't HAVE To mention Strike (see page xx) then just leave it at Strike (made up example).

I would say personally I am not a fan of the coloured page backgrounds as well, this makes it very printer unfriendly and I just feel text on white (Crimson Throne Hardback) was a cleaner look.

And they are trying to make right by us, despite that they were not responsible for this mess. Amazon screwed everyone over.

Yeah, I mean I am super annoyed and bummed out, especially with it looking like September deliveries for the UK, however I can't be mad at Paizo because they've been so communicative and honest about it.

My biggest gripe now is if Amazon will still hold that charge for shipping, as for me as a UK customer I had to pay almost the cost of the books again in shipping as I wanted a guaranteed delivery. As others have said I have Prime so I could have ordered via Amazon themselves and not paid a penny in shipping so... yeah, give me my money back Amazon! (and don't charge my Paizo friends either).

Turelus wrote:

Vic I noticed in the orders your checked you didn't list the UK, are you able to check any UK orders to give us a rough ETA? As the EU countries listed have a few days difference in them.

Some UK orders:

London, shipped yesterday, Delivery Estimate: September 6
Cumbria, shipped yesterday, Delivery Estimate: September 6
Aberdeen, shipped today, Delivery Estimate: September 6

Not UK:
Ireland, shipped yesterday, Delivery Estimate: September 6

Damn, that's way later than I was imagining. Was hoping to have the copy to read on my travels later this month.

Thanks for the information, I really appreciate the transparency you're showing in regards to this.

Turelus wrote:

An official statement won't end it, it will just start a "CHANGE IT THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!" or "OMG CHANGE IT BACK!" spam of threads.

Or, the people who threaten to leave if Paizo doesn't do what they demand will actually LEAVE.

But that doesn't happen on the internet. The loudest "I'm gonna leave unless ...." people are always there 6 months later, with some other foot-stomping threat.

It would be nice to see people behave ethically and do what they say they're going to do. But those "ethical" stances are almost always a bluff. They don't actually follow their own code.

I think I am far too cynical and spend too much time on forums (not these ones though) to believe an official statement will ever end a debate like this.

Even well into the release of 2E the debate will be had by people because there are groups who just want different things from their Paladins. Which is fine and can be solved around home games, but people will have to accept the choices Paizo make will be law in society gaming.

An official statement won't end it, it will just start a "CHANGE IT THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!" or "OMG CHANGE IT BACK!" spam of threads.

From what I've heard/read from Paizo it sounds like they're all remaining if their classes are* but they might have their looks changed a little.

Like Hask having two weapons, Valerous a shield.

* The recent Know Direction Erik made it sound like they want to bring every class over but some will have more focused intensive play testing (Gunslinger) however they're also not interested in just preprinting the same books updated.

Goblin playable race is so far the only thing I don't really like from what I've heard of the new edition.

I love the Pathfinder goblins but I love them as the wacky evil enemies they are, but making them a player race in the core book means they're now something which has to be considered normal citizens in the world. There are enough not evil goblins to be considered a common race for heroes.

I feel these civilised goblins will have to have a lot of changes to be something players can actually make heroes with.

I'll have to wait until I see the information in the book for final judgement, hoping with it being at UK Games Expo I can get a sneak peak (like they did with Starfinder) at the ancestry pages.

Sounds good, this system seems interesting and much simpler.

I'll echo others concerns that AoO might be class specific now but on the other hand it means BBEG mages might actually be able to cast spells from time to time when swarmed by PC's.

If it's how I'm expecting it to work I am fine with that.

3 actions, you just say what you want to do with them, they get done. No more tracking "you used you move action to do X so you can't do Y unless you expend your standard, oh sorry I didn't know you had the thing to make that a swift, so that next thing was a free action, so now this is your standard action?"

I know that's a little dramatic but at higher level play with groups who are not flawless in the rules that can be how it goes. A system when you just say what you to and mark off action uses is fine by me.

Information-based indicates that the rules are more for those trying to get the rules rather than something written as fiction or to solely entertain. In otherwords, just as it says, information based. Facts and Rules.

I really hope this breaks away from some of the RAW/RAI arguments especially around spells.

I'm not convinced most RPG players are big enough history buffs to even realize it's incorrect.

I fall under this.

I'd never heard of brigandine before this thread, If you asked me what it was I wouldn't have known. However ask me what Studded Leather was and I could tell you.
I've played years of RPG games which use historically incorrect names so for me and my players to start a system where we had to learn new names for what mostly has standardised ones in the gaming world would be confusing.

I want this now, I can has please?

Also if as James said Runelords was a trilogy idea is Shattered Star #2 with this being #3?

Personally I wouldn't skip HoA because whilst it can be long winded it does also offer the PC's a chance to get out of the city for wilderness adventures, as well as being a story part.

If you're running the revised edition there is also the encounters a Deathhead Vault added.

Also Scarewall is already a kicker for groups at level, those under levelled could get wrecked pretty fast with the amount of ability damage that dungeon throws around.

If you're looking to buff up the game for more players I would say try adding more monsters rather than buffing their damage/HP alone. This was something I learnt running Rise of the Runelords for six people.

I am currently doing Crimson Throne for five experienced players and they've been storming through some areas but not others.
If you're interested I've made all of my changes and campaign works public, you can check my spreadsheet here which on the second tab lists all the encounters and changes I've made.

I'm currently in the process of doing History of Ashes as that's where my group is about to go. Personally I find the entire chapter weak in combat before Deathhead vault, but I also feel that this chapter is more focused on story and learning the lore of the Shoanti than combat. They'll get enough of that in Scarwall.

There are also some extra modules you can throw out about now. Legendary games has Hero's Blood which is a plug in module for CotCT run during CH4. Towards the end of CH4 you can run Academy of Secrets as well with some minor alterations.

Any way I've rambled enough, here's the spreadsheet link.

So some more musings for this.

We're now midway through CH3 with the PC's just going to Arkona dungeons.

The Harrowing module went down amazingly, I introduced this by having one of my party members (Varisian Bard) brother go missing(replacing the missing NPC from the module), upon investigation they found he's last been seen going to a fortune teller from a passing group of Varisians.

Be aware even vs my five player, 25 point buy, well build group the boss of this module could be an easy TPK.

I never bothered finishing the custom quests for CH2/3 as it was dragging a little and my players were getting frustrated at the lack of progress with the plague.

I've solved the issues of the Vivified Labyrinth map by editing a single large map with all rotations on it. Not sure on the ability to share this as I've used the official Paizo map. This was mostly an issue I had to solve due to running the game on a VTT.

I've adjusted the levelling points on my spreadsheet some more to try and get a better flow of when the group levels vs the content they're doing.
The biggest issues with this have been Scarwall (where there is no set path) and CH6 being rapid levels for very little content.

I'm planning to write an additional fight against some basilisks in CH4 as an encounter they stumble across whilst travelling (I wanted to use some basilisks and figure finding a lair was more interesting than simple fight on a random encounter map).

I will probably drop working in Fortress of the Nail as well as it doesn't really add to the story.

I am currently in the progress of upping the power of CH4/CH5 with a lot of focus on making Scarwall the challenge it's famous and do Greg proud.
These balance changes are because my group is now coming into the levels showing how strong my players are with the system and I want to put some fear back into them.

The build up on Marcus in the early modules paid off well, this made his death scene. I had them view the scene via a vision/image run by Zellara whilst they were within the Harrowed Realm (The Harrowing).
This kept the party out of trouble and meant I could keep Marcus' body away from them (as the Paladin can raise him within one day of death).

That's all I can think of right now, I'll try and update things as I think of them or finish them over the next months.

After running RotR with six players and midway through CotCT with five players using 25 point buy I will say I'll never run it again.

There are a lot of arguments as to why 25 point buy does or doesn't matter but I will simply say with players that are at the skill mine are (experienced, understand min/max but don't actively try to break the game) then it's too much.

The fault I had when deciding on attributes at the start was to look at the base attributes, I didn't add Bardic Performance, Bless, Prayer, Haste etc. to those stats and see just how quickly the numbers escalate.

As for balancing for numbers it's not easy, mostly I have learnt that more enemies is better than stronger ones. Whenever there is an encounter with 4 mooks, add enough to make it 1 per PC.

Sometimes it's also worth looking at encounters and thinking "does this need to be a hard one?" and making sure you're only challenging them when needed.

If you want I have a GoogleDoc tracking all my changes I've made to encounters. I've tried to retain true to the source as much as possible.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kr7PM8E9IQodtP7u91h7YAR6uyqq00cKd5M G_wsh1A0/edit#gid=834151223

Second tab is the encounters breakdown.

Hey Turelus, any chance you'd be able to 'open your entire folder of files' yet?

I am ramping up prep to start CoCT. Our group is convening this weekend for a two game blowout, to try finishing RotR. So, in about a month they will be chomping at the bit to launch.

I am gathering (stealing) all the advice and resources I can in advance of that.

Regardless, I much appreciate what you have posted so far, especially that spreadsheet. Thanks.

Yikes, I entirely forgot about doing this and it's already been like a month, sorry!

Hopefully this link works, Please excuse the mess it's kind of an organised chaos that works for me.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-qbRzsXbUqKYXN3TlZEd2FLLXc

There are some custom quest ideas being worked on at the moment, when the maps are done (will make them myself with Dungeon Painter Studio) I'll throw them in there as well.

As I have said previously the easiest solution to this is to tell the players they need to play good characters who are invested in the city.

The fact they're all hostile to one another from the start seems to say where this campaign will be heading in the long run.

As players they should be mature enough to understand if you're investing time in running a game for them they need to make characters which work for it.

You shouldn't need to do additional work trying to make their characters do what's required for the story to run smoothly, they should be making characters to fit your story.

The idea you have will work but personally I would ask them to change to a group that works.
If you're the GM you get to make the rules, tell you players it doesn't look like the current group will work for the whole campaign and that they may need to change characters. Ban evil characters (seriously they should never be allowed unless it's an evil game, it only makes the issues you have right now).
Sit with them and flesh their back story out so everyone has a reason to care about the city.
Stand up for yourself and the game when you know they're doing something to be a special snowflake.

My group I ended up with.

Human (Ulfan) Paladin of Cayden - Family owns the Three Rings tavern so he's invested in the city.

Human (Taldan) Slayer - Former criminal who was betrayed by Lamm then saved by the Paladin so they became good friends.

Human (Varisian) Bard - Lives at Trails End with other Varisians, understands the hardships and wants to overcome them by becoming a famous comedian.

Half-Orc Wizard - Works as a PI in the city, has connections to Cressida Kroft from his work.

Human (Chelish) Cleric of Iomadae - From Sandpoint and ended up in Korvosa tracking he man who had her framed for murder.

So in closing I may sound condescending but I've had these issues as a learning GM as it was only as my group matured and I matured as a GM I realised that if I am going to run a game I get to dictate the rules for characters.
They should be helping you and the story, working against it isn't what the hobby is about.

I've not had the issue in this campaign and my players have been pretty good at realising what seems to be the story guiding them and going with it.

I did have it in a homebrew once where they were meant to work for the guard but ended up signing up with the mercenary office. I kind of just worked the same stories into a new angle.

You could try getting them to work with Marcus Endrin and the Sable Company in Crimson Throne and deflect to Cressida later, or maybe the church of Abadar.

Find an organisation they're willing to follow and go with it until you can give them a reason why Cressida is an ally worth having.

You could even have them working for Sabina and the Queen and later move to Cressida when they're alienated by the Crown.

There was another thread on this a few pages back.

I believe the list was as follows.

Zoro movies
Dune
A Man Called Horse

Thanks for posting, it's great to know this has helped others.

I've been pretty bad at keeping this updated as we've been in play most Sundays as well as me getting back into some other hobbies. Also with Fantasy Grounds announcing their Paizo deal I am waiting to see what they do with the CotCT AP.

My players have really enjoyed the pacing I've done, it didn't flow exactly like the spreadsheet as players will be players.

They followed up on a rumour about Upslope House so I ended up bringing the Derro into the campaign a little earlier, just a short adventure in some tunnels under Korvosa with 3x Derro, 1x pit trap and 1x bat swarm (which was a bit mean so early).

The PFS modules have really helped pad the first chapter out and had the interesting effect of giving them more things to try and figure out what's going on. If you can run the PFS ones without them knowing it's great for adding some false leads to the real villain.

I've also just half run the queens speech from the audio books. Instead of just having Cressida talk to the NPC's and tell them to go capture Trinia I had them invited to a speech by the queen and then did the audio book speech word for word, this was also a fun chance to bring in Glorio Arkona and Zenderholm earlier for them to speak with.

The downside I have noticed of this is they now want to investigate the murder much more deeply as none of them believed the queen or Sabina (grrr sense motif).
So I need to figure out how to let them have some leads and fun without spoiling too much story or just putting a wall up.

Next session is Sunday, I'll try and get back and post some more Monday or Tuesday but moving office at work next week so not sure how much time I have.

I was wondering how others handle variants of monsters with knowledge checks.

Specifically I am looking at the following situation (spoilers in case one of my players walks into this thread)

So I kind of vanished for a while due to other things taking my free time and wanted to come back with an update.

Firstly I haven't done a great deal of additional work for the campaign as I am now running it and in a more reactive writing mode based on player actions than a planned approach as before.

Additionally with Fantasy Grounds announcing their partnership with Paizo and plans to put CotCT into FG2 modules I haven't done as much work as if I am patient it will all be done for me (yay lazy GM!).

Session Information
The campaign has started now as I said above and has so far been going fantastically, coming off Rise of the Runelords which my group was a little fed up with (they didn't enjoy the story) this campaign has had the gripped and wishing for sessions non-stop.

The Party
Pub Brewster - Ulfen Paladin of Cayden Cailean
Denise Gardner - Chelish Cleric of Iomedae
Gin Lockden - Taldan Slayer
Bartholomew "Barty" Cain - Varisian Bard (going to prestiege Harrower)
Haskeer City Born - Half-Orc Divination Wizard (Fox Familiar named McCloud)

Session 01
The first session started right off with me explaining how the characters each found harrow cards with message from Zellara on.
One little change I made here was to use the old image of the not on an actual card (rather than note paper as in the hardcover) as well as photoshop the invitation to be for noon after than sundown.
As two of the characters (Pub & Barty) had family which had been kidnapped by Lamm I knew they would head right to the fishery after meeting Zellara, as such I didn't want to run the encounters at night and changed the note.

Meeting with Zellara I did a single Harrow reading for the group (this was pre-done with them choosing via our WhatsApp group a couple of weeks before), Gin and Pub both had their cards come up in the past column which worked out well as they knew one another already due to events in their pasts.

They were quick to accept the quest of going to the fishery and no one suspected anything at all in regards to illusions.

Upon reaching the fishery the party split in two, with some entering via the loading bays and some via Yargins office. A fight broke out soon enough and they managed to beat down all opposition without killing anyone. One of the orphans here (Kester) was Barty's Nephew who he rescued.
They interrogated (without violence) their captives and leant that Pub's sister (Carli) was being held below with Lamm.

They got down to Lamm overcoming other encounters with ease and no one falling in any water.

The found Carli Brewster suspended by a rope and pulley system above the water where Gobblegut was, Lamm and his henchman (Raedac as per my changes) stood opposite.
The battle started with Barty charming Raedac and having him start safely moving Carli back onto the boards, Gobblegut got Colour Spayed then killed with bows/javelins and Pub engaged and knocked out Lamm.

The session ended there as we ran out of time.

Will post later sessions in future when I can steal a bit of time at work to do so.
If anyone has any questions about how I am running the game or changes made please post, once again all of this is to help give back after coming in and having such great works of others to feed off.

Thank you so much for this! You've saved me a lot of work and this is really appreciated. :)

Just wondering did any GM's do anything with the ring found in Gaedren's treasure with “For Emmah—the light in my nights” engraved on it?

Knowing my group they're going to look to return this ring rather than just sell it, would be nice to have a quest associated with it, wondering if anyone else had a nice story to tell from it.

Sleepy laReef it might be a little over detailed in all honesty. I am very OCD about things adding up, being neat and pre-planning everything.
I do have a notebook with some ideas in as well but moved most of my ideas onto the speadsheet as it allows me access at work without risking my notebook in this lovely British winters rain. I've read the introduction to your campaign and loved the characters, looking forward to reading the updates as they come through.

Steel_Wind the quest was posted here on the forums: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2turs?Sable-Company-Adventures
Now I stress badly this was meant as a quest which was an excuse to introduce Marcus Endrin earlier. It was a quick 10min job and a little silly (10' poles as spears?) so it might require some work if you wanted more in depth.

My original plan was to bring Marcus Endrin in earlier and have the PCs actually know him, as I hate stories where a character dies and no one actually knows who they were (although the hardcover changed this so he lives).
My follow up from that was to see what the PCs were doing, who they were clicking with and have NPCs seed the PFS modules or other custom quests to help give them more screen time. This was one of my main reasons for moving away from the XP system as well (which I really wanted to use!) as keeping the curve right with all the extra content and possible random add-ins was getting too much work.

I am still interested in your own write up and kept meaning to acknowledge the thread where you said it was coming. I just am not sure on the etiquette of being too chatty in threads on these forums.

MrVergee I believe it was your thread where I first read about Academy of Secrets and had the idea to add it. I do plan to read both yours and Inspectre's threads in full at some point as they're a treasure trove of ideas, at this time I have mostly skim read and stopped when something jumps out. Two weeks holiday after today though so plenty of time to sit and really read things though.

To all, at the moment the new or reworked ideas have stalled a little as I'm really focusing on the polish of work and typing up of CH1 into Fantasy Grounds.
The campaign starts January 8th (hopefully) and I'll start posting some of the session events, characters stories etc here as well.

I am mostly just hoping that this thread can help give some other GM's ideas or help in the way so many of your threads have me.

Thank you! This is actually the first time I have done it. I was inspired after watching a video of Wolfgang Baur talking about beefing up GM descriptions and the fact my Rise of the Runelords game became a bit dull during loot distribution.

My plan is to eventually work through the entire CotCT book and write something for each item. I might double up on some items, having some wands and rings look the same. I also will probably brush over some of the generic +1/+2 gear that becomes standard later in the adventure, more of how Lamm's dagger was just a standard looking dagger.

So an update on the actual work done. I haven't really done much grand new work as I've been focused on helping flesh out characters backstories and polish items for the first chapter.

I've done a choosing for the first Harrow reading, I had my players choose a number between one and nine, none of them could have the same number. Each corresponded to a Keys card in the deck. These will be the cards that Zellara sends the players with her message on the back.
As for the Harrow reading itself I have done it early (though still randomly with my deck) so I have some extra time to think about what to say (I'm very out of practice with improv and don't want the Harrow reading to suffer for that).

I've tweaked the Wererat Den encounter in chapter two at last. After picking up Tome of Horrors 4 I found the "Dire Rat Megaswarm" and it seemed both excited and fitting to use. This has replaced the 3 dire rats in area B5.

Lastly I went through all the magic items in Chapter 1 and gave them descriptions. This is something I hope to continue with throughout the campaign (later letting basic +X items trail into less special looks) as in the previous campaign loot was very dull. List can be found below (although probably easier to read from the Google sheet).

Currently I am working on some custom sound sets in Syrinscape, fluffing out NPC's and getting a voice for each of them.

I posted it on the forums before I started doing everything on the spreadsheet. Link below.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2turs?Sable-Company-Adventures#2

They were modified Brigands to change out most of their gear for some useless stuff, the idea was to just have a simple but different fight.

When I have run session zeros I normally use the following order.

Outline my goals/aims/desires for the campaign.
Tell my players my table/house rules.
Tell my players the character creation rules.
Hand it over to them to make characters together whilst I sit back as a resource to be used.

Generally my players form party roles on their own, discuss overlaps and share our skills so no one steps on anyone's toes too much.

You could try asking them questions like "what will your reactions be when you encounter x" or "you've come to a room with a possible trap, what will you do?" and give them some scenarios to think through and problem solve as a group.

Find out who wants to the the loot person to record and divvy it up, who wants to make notes about NPCs for the group etc. try and think of ways where you can get them to talk to each other and discuss things they can do to help one another.

Hopefully this help, not sure if it's exactly what you were looking for however.

I mostly handled this issue by telling my players during our session zero that they need to care about Korvosa because if they don't the AP will just stall. They were all happy with that and made characters that would be willing to help the city (having a Paladin and LG Cleric helps too).

That said I am sure that even if they don't directly work for the guard if they're interested in helping the city you can work a lot of the campaigns quests into story elements they hear in rumours or NPC's approaching them for aid.

For All The Worlds Meat specifically.

So an update on my work as much changed this week after discussions with players.

Bloodsworn Vale
I've cut Bloodsworn Vale from the campaign. I like the idea of running the module but the time it would have to be run (at level) would be in the middle of Seven Days which just wouldn't work.
I wanted this as a distraction and reason to get the players out of Korvosa for a little to give Old Korvosa a little more time to deteriorate and the unveiling of the Crown of Fangs to happen with the players away. I've instead bumped Green Market (PFS) to the higher tier for this purpose.

Removal of XP system
After a lot of thinking, some chats with players and generally trying to work through the headaches of making multiple modules run together I removed the XP system.
The biggest reason for this was around levels 5-9 I had Seven Days, Hook Street and a PFS module being run, together their XP was well beyond even medium track. This also left me with the issue that depending which conclusion to Seven Days or Hook Steet P1 the players ran first they would be one level ahead for the other.
Lastly it means that I can really go crazy with mini encounters to make the campaign feel longer and Korvosa more alive without the constant worry of if XP is in check.

For those who are interested in running an XP based campaign I've left my old calculations on the GoogleDoc as the last two tabs, these won't be updated but hopefully help.

Seven Days Changes
* Added an additional Vampire Spawn due to have five players.
* Added one Queen's Physician to the upstairs in the Hospice.
* For the encounter with Andaisin I've replaced 2 Juju Zombies with 2 Sarcovalts (Inner Sea Gods p313) and added Andaisin's missing +2 bonus for human (Wis/Cha not 100% decided yet). I'll also be giving her the Heart necklace from Inner Sea Gods (forget the name) which lets her receive healing from either positive or negative energy. This fight has been pretty heavily buffed as I wanted her to be a memorable fight (especially when she warrants a deities intervention).

There a most likely more changes coming to this section as I'm not 100% happy with it yet, however I am waiting for the end of our session 0 this Sunday.

Thanks. I am using Fantasy Grounds which by default only has the one map layer. I'll have to try the multi-layer extension and see if how you did yours will work.

Ah yes! Damn I only read that part two weeks ago and I already forgot that's part of her actions to disguise as Vencarlo. Otherwise yes I was kind of wondering where any logic would be in her not being her true form if the PCs have not seen her in her Arkona form at any time.

Thanks again, given me some stuff to think about and test to get past these.

Perception is one of the reasons I liked the Star Wars Saga rules where skills were all half character level +X for choosing it as a specialised skill.

It kind of bugs me as well that so many things you just want you character to be able to do are locked behind skills. More annoying is that the way you gain more skill points is become smarter. To jump or acrobatics along with other skills you have to be academic and have a higher Int.

It's the system we have and what we use though I guess.

So some of the minor changes I can list out which are in my head but may not be in the GoogleDoc yet.

Gaedren Lamm has one extra ally who is in the room with him when the PC's arrive. I have used a CR 1/3 recruit fron the NPC Guide who I named Reidaic.
I wanted Lamm to still seem weak and feeble but I didn't want the boss fight to be anti-climactic.

Another addition to this encounter I am considering is if the PC's have a friend/family member who's been taken by Lamm, I will have them here bound and gagged and at the edge of the pool. Lamm can then have a short evil dialogue with the PCs before starting the fight by kicking the hostage into the water with Gobblegut.

I've added two extra Cow Hammer Boys to All the Worlds Meat. Mostly just a minor change to try and add some challenge to my group.
One of them is in the back with the other two, one is in the break room in front of Vankaskakin.

I've added a conversation with Marcus Endrin during the PCs recruitment to working for the guard. The current plan is to have him barge in and start ranting about the queen before noticing Kroft has company and catching himself mid sentence.
He'll then explain that one of his rangers has gone missing after following a group of rioters in North Point, his new boss the Queen won't let him send any of his men to investigate because they're needed elsewhere. Kroft and Endrin then send the PCs to investigate. The basics of the adventure can be found here: LINK

The idea of this encounter is to try and bring Marcus into the campaign before the events at the start of chapter 3 and help flesh out some of Korvosa by showing all the factions/groups.

The last changes I have are in the Dead Warrens. I have Photoshopped away the two additional tunnels (as I didn't want to flesh them out) I am considering adding a couple more Derro's or Stirges to again bring up the challenge for a experienced group of 5.

I've changed Cabbagehead's armour from +1 Studded Leather to Otyugh Armour as part of my "give more interesting items" pass on the campaign.

I've added an extra magic item in Rolth's room. This is a Plague Rat Belt which he's made from several of his dead familiars. There will be a note along side this explaining that he's finally finished work on it and where the rat parts came from. This is a bit of a boost in player wealth but it's a nice item to offer the group before the events of CH2 and with 5 players I don't feel it will offset the WBL too much.

Lastly I've added a Cadaver (Tome of Horrors Complete) to the final fight in the Dead Warrens. This will be the undead which will be Gaedren Lamm should the PCs leave his body behind.

I've always let my players roll.

I am a fan of my players make more roles than me because it keeps them engaged and then it's their successes and failures.

By the end of my last campaign one of the key bits of knowledge everyone wanted to know was if something had SR.

If they didn't have the knowledge they would normally just declare the spell, ask if they needed and SR check (to which I said yes/no) then roll for the SR and I roll the save.

I can understand the thought process behind hiding the information as to why a spell didn't work but generally I find it frustrates my players if they don't know why their actions are not working, they're fine with failures or failed attacks but hate the "you don't know why you can't hurt it"

Also lastly it generally speeds up combat for them to just know and roll, which after running an AP to level 17 combat get vert slow towards the end.

Note sure how much I am allowed to directly quote from source books so hopefully I don't get in trouble.

p 262 from the new hardcover (Skeletons of Scarwall)
Even in the church of Zon-Kuthon, Kazavon is regarded as an unstable Zealot whose death did more to help the church’s position than his life. Kazavon’s flair for the overly dramatic made him an easy villain to hate, and as the Ally points out, giving the church’s enemies a despicable monster to rally against is not a wise move for continued prosperity.